This Week in History

Listen to and learn about events that happened this week in history—including politics, war, crime, inventions, entertainment and fashion. Archive of events that have shaped history. For learners and teachers of English, with audio recording, vocabulary and quick quizzes.

30 July 1930

First FIFA World Cup Is Held In Uruguay

The final match of the first FIFA World Cup Football Championship is held in Montevideo, Uruguay

In 1930, the first FIFA World Cup Football (soccer) Championship was held in Uruguay, with the final match being played in the country's capital, Montevideo, between the host nation Uruguay and their South American neighbours Argentina. Uruguay trailed 2-1 at half-time, but scored 3 goals in the second half to win 4-2 and become the first World Champions. The FIFA World Cup is now held every 4 years and is one of the world's most popular sporting events, with the final match regularly watched by over 2 billion television viewers.

WordcheckerWorld Cup (noun): an international football (soccer) competition held every four yearsmatch (noun): a contest in which teams compete with each otherhost nation (noun): the country where an event is heldneighbour (British English spelling)/neighbor
(American English spelling)trail (verb): be behind in pointshalf-time (noun): the interval between two halves of a match

Transcript: The first ever FIFA World Cup took place in July of 1930 in Uruguay. This was the only World Cup without a qualification, and every country affiliated with FIFA was invited to come play. Uruguay not only hosted the first FIFA World Cup, but it also won the first one, beating Argentina 4 to 2 in the final.

Quick Quiz:

All the matches in the first FIFA World Cup Football Championship were played in

Montevideo

Argentina

Uruguay

Which team was winning just before the second half of the first FIFA World Cup Championship final began?

Uruguay

Argentina

Montevideo

The country in which an international sporting event is being held is called